Out of the Black
by MegKF
Summary: Ianto thought that when he died everything would just be black, like some sort of half sleep, and that he'd be alone.
1. Prologue

_Torchwood / Doctor Who is owned by BBC. No copyright infringement is intended. Fanfiction is, in my opinion, free advertisement. I encourage everyone to purchase these products._

 _Spoilers for Children of Earth._

 **Out of the Black - Prologue**

Ianto stared calmly into the black. At least he assumed he was staring, he was pretty sure his eyes were open, there just wasn't anything to see, well he could see himself, he hadn't expected that. He was even sitting on nothing. Somehow from everything he'd been told about death by those who'd died he shouldn't have really been conscious. Only when prompted would the dead say it was black, nothingness, etc. But here he was thinking about it, contemplating it even. Sure he'd expected it be nothing, and he'd been right, there was plenty of nothingness, but he'd expected it to be more like a dreamless sleep.

He pulled his broken stopwatch from his suit pocket, and messed around with it, he wasn't sure how long he'd been dead but he sure didn't want all eternity to be like this. He'd begun his afterlife, so to speak, yelling out greetings, for what felt like hours, hoping for a response, there had been none. Ianto fell back against the unsubstantial ground and looked up into the blackness of the nothing sky, he was the only thing here, "I wish I wasn't alone."

Ianto sat up as suddenly as he laid down moments before, because now he wasn't alone. There was a boy sleeping next to him. Ianto stared as the boy a moment before looking back up at the sky and saying with only the slightest bit of hopefulness, "I wish I was with Jack."

Sadly nothing changed. He hadn't really thought anything would, but it was worth a try. He turned to look back at the child. He was a good looking child, probably about 10 years, give or take a year. Blonde. Ianto was certain that by the time the boy woke that he would have memorized the boy's appearance. Ianto moved to sit cross legged and watched the child, it was almost hypnotic watching the child's chest rise and fall. He wondered for a moment why either of them were breathing, being that they were both dead and there not being air, perhaps because it was a habit from living...? Would they eventually stop going through the motions of what they'd done when alive?

Ianto stiffened as he saw the boy begin to stir.

"Hello?" Ianto said, suddenly hesitant.

"Hello Sir," the boy said sitting up and looking around with curiosity.

Ianto pondered how the boy could appear so calm, "I'm Ianto. What's your name?"

"Steven. Is my mom here? Or Uncle Jack?"

Ianto's eyes widened, "Uncle Jack? Do you mean Jack Harkness?"

"Yes. Don't you know them?" Steven asked as he considered the man beside him for the first time, his mind still waking up.

"I know Jack. ... He's my boss. Were you expecting to see him?" Ianto responded as he realized who his companion was.

"He said everything would be okay. Are you going to take me to my mom?"

Unfortunately Ianto, who could usually come up with something to say, was speechless, possibly for the first time. After all, how do you tell any child, especially your lover's grandson who you're meeting for the first time, that they're dead and it might be because their 'uncle' had done it to somehow save the world.

 **End - Prologue**

 _Author's Note: I haven't posted anything in ages, truthfully I've barely written anything since I started my current job almost 5 years ago. I actually wrote this about then, but hadn't typed it until now. I don't remember what I was planning for this and thought it might be interesting to try writing more of this from reviewer suggestions. So Ianto and Steven are dead, but in the black together, what do you think should happen next?_


	2. Chapter 1

_Torchwood / Doctor Who is owned by BBC. No copyright infringement is intended. Fanfiction is, in my opinion, free advertisement. I encourage everyone to purchase these products._

 _Spoilers for Children of Earth._

 **Out of the Black - Chapter 1**

Ianto stared at the child in front of him, unsure of what to tell him. He wasn't very good with kids. He was alright with his niece and nephew, mostly because he didn't spend much time with them without his sister there as a buffer, but his normal response of stating things, in a manner that some might call sarcastic, was not the way to go with children. The point became moot as similarly to how Steven arrived earlier, Jack appeared next to them sleeping.

"Uncle Jack!" Steven cried out happily.

Jack sat up quickly, gasping for air. It reminded Ianto of how Jack reacted when he'd come back to life.

"Steven?" Jack shook his head in confusion. "No. You're dead, dead, my fault." Jack began to ramble, panicking.

"Jack!" Ianto cried out as Steven started backing away, scared of how his 'Uncle' was acting.

Ianto rushed over to Jack's side and reached over to pull Jack into his arms. Ianto recognized Jack's panic attack from similar ones from right after his brief disappearance and again after Gray had buried him. "It's alright Jack. I'm here, you're not alone. I'm here Jack. Calm down." Ianto started speaking softly in Welsh, knowing that his voice calmed Jack. Jack arms came up to clutch one of Ianto's, the one wrapped around his chest.

"My fault," Jack said confused. "It's all my fault, I should have gone alone. You're dead and it's my fault. You're both dead and it's all my fault."

"Uncle Jack?" Steven said cautiously, moving forward very slowly. He was so young, he just couldn't understand what was happening. Stopping as Jack faded away in a bright light that almost blinded them, Ianto's arms fell as he failed to hold onto anything.

"I bring life," a woman's voice echoed and then everything returned to nothingness.

"What's going on?" Steven asked moving slowly towards Ianto until he could sit down next to him as Ianto collapsed so he way just lying in the nothingness of the black again.

"Hel..." Ianto voice trailed off, second guessing his word choice, considering. He decided the answer to his dilemma of what to tell Steven was just to tell him the short version and hope he'll be able to tell him more if this continued on. Jack would apparently be visiting and had already stated enough in his panic. For now at least Ianto and Steven were safe, together, and he'd do what he could to keep Steven that way. "I think we both died and we're in Jack's afterlife instead of our own," he began simply.

* * *

Elsewhere Jack awakened with a gasp. He threw the gun to the side. Ianto would be upset with him for shooting himself, he always hated it when he died, hated it when he wasn't there to hold him when he came back. But Ianto didn't know that Jack had killed his own grandson. He didn't know, couldn't know, because he was gone. Jack sat up, his arms wrapped loosely around his legs. He ignored the blood stain forming on the wall behind him. Soon he would have to get up and return to Cardiff, maybe he could find a way to close the rift. Gwen would leave soon too, even if she could forgive him for what he did she'd still be having a baby before she knew it and he wasn't going to risk the baby not growing up with his or her mother. He'd be alone again.

 **End - Chapter 1**

 _Author's Note:_ _Yes... I'm being mean. Jack doesn't remember meeting Ianto and Steven in the black._ _I_ _don't know what I had planned for this story (wrote the prologue almost 5 years ago) so I'm using reviewer suggestions_ _. More ideas of what should happen should make chapters longer._ _*hint hint*_ _Review if you like it too, it keeps me motivated._

 _Q &A: __Keeping it cannon doesn't matter, I haven't seen Miracle Day_ _because_ _I_ _anto_ _'s_ _n_ _ot in it_ _, although I have a rough idea of what happens_ _..._ _Might use the radio play House of the Dead if it fits in though._


End file.
